


The Meaning of Names

by Nepheliad



Category: Tales of Xillia
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-26
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-08-17 11:39:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8142395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nepheliad/pseuds/Nepheliad
Summary: Follows Ludger's Ending, twenty years into the future. Elle Kresnik attempts to make sense of the meaning of names, and the cryptic words engraved into her father's pocket watch.





	

As far back as she could remember, her father never called her by her name. Not when he was joking around, not when he was helping with homework, not when chatting with his old friends. Not even when she’d almost gotten killed by the Veywind Eye on Torbalan Highroad while trying to do a job alone. He was angry then, but even so, he called her Ellie.

Never Elle.

As a child, she never really questioned it. It was her father’s adoring nickname for her, and she thought it sounded nice, anyways. In her early teens, she rolled her eyes every time he said it, and even got into a few arguments with him about it – even dragging out a copy of her birth certificate to prove her point, underlining the name Elle Kresnik in front of his face. It did nothing, so in the end, she was always his Ellie.

By the time she hit adulthood at eighteen, she’d accepted her name was Ellie, official documents be damned. She lived in her own apartment in Trigleph, in the same Freres Apartments that her father used to live in. Ludger had tried to convince her to work at Spirius, but she adamantly refused – she wasn’t cut out for office work, and she wasn’t about to let anyone accuse her of nepotism. She often visited home – for some reason, her father hated visiting her place.

It was on one of these visits that she happened upon his pocket watch. She never had a chance to look at it closely before – Ludger always kept it with him, even when he slept. But that day, after a long hike and short battle with a Gun Tortoise on Rusalle Highroad during their father-daughter picnic, he left it in his pants pocket as he showered.

Curiosity got the better of her, and she fished it out. Opening it up, she marveled at the workmanship for only a moment before the words engraved on the cover caught and kept her eye.

_Elle Mel Marta_

_No Elle More Real_

She turned the name over in her head, and thought of all the relatives on her mother’s side. None with that name came to mind. The patter of water stopped. Elle hastily put the pocket watch back into Ludger’s pocket, and sat at the table, trying not to fidget.

“Hey,” Ludger said, ruffling his still wet hair. “Feeling hungry?”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” she replied, a little too quickly.

Ludger raised an eyebrow. “You okay?”

“Uh-huh.” Elle nodded emphatically. “I’m just really hungry! Fighting always takes a lot out of me!” She forced a cheery laugh.

Her father shook his head and grinned. “That’s my Ellie. But you know, if it ever starts feeling too difficult, there’s always a position open at Spirius for you.”

“And miss out on an excuse to pig out on your cooking? No way! You’re the best cook in the whole world!” she laughed, this time genuinely.

“I’m pretty sure I’m no better than second-best,” Ludger replied. For just a split second as she blinked, Elle thought she saw the corners of his mouth tug downwards, but when her eyes opened, he was smiling as gently as before.

“If you’re talking about Mom, you’re wrong. You’re better by far.”

Ludger laughed. “Don’t let Mom hear you say that. What would you like?”

“Mabo curry. Make it Ellie-style!”

“Still can’t take the heat?”

Elle puffed out her cheeks. “Psh, more like Ellie-style is the best style.”

He chuckled and headed to the kitchen. Some rustling later, he came back out. “Ah, I’ll have to head out for a bit. We’ve run out of a few spices.”

“I’ll come,” she started, getting up before being pushed back down on her seat by her dad.

“Sit back and relax with Mom – she’s coming home in a moment,” he said, heading out, “After all, fighting took a lot out of you.”

“Hey!”

Ludger grinned and shut the door behind him.

In the silence of the dining room, the name she saw on his pocket watch came back to her. _Elle Mel Marta_. She turned it over and over in her head. It was her name. It was her mother’s name.

“No Elle more real…” she mumbled to herself. The cryptic words made her shift uneasily in her chair. What did it mean?

The door opened. “Back from your picnic?”

Elle’s head whipped around. “Oh! Yeah, we’re back.”

Lara ran her fingers through her blonde hair, gathered in a side ponytail, as always. “Did you and Dad have a good time?”

“Yeah! We took a nice walk, and even got to kill a few monsters together!”

“Just don’t overdo it, okay? I get worried.”

Elle put her hands on her waist and grinned. “You don’t need to worry about us. After all, no matter how rusty Dad gets, I’m good enough for the both of us.”

“I’m not worried about you two,” Lara laughed, “I’m worried about the poor monsters being driven extinct!” She looked around. “Where’s your father?”

“Oh, he went out to get some spices for mabo curry.”

The older woman smiled. “Exactly what I guessed we’d have for dinner. Mabo curry, Elle-style.”

 _Elle-style._ That’s right. Her mom often called her Ellie, but just as often, she called her Elle.

“Hey, Mom?"

“Yes?” The smile faded from Lara’s face as she noticed Elle’s pensive expression.

“Who’s Elle Mel Marta?”

“Hmm?”

Elle glanced up at her mother. “I saw Dad’s pocket watch today. There were some words engraved in it, about an Elle Mel Marta. It said something about how there’s no Elle more real, or something like that.”

Lara’s mouth opened wordlessly, then closed. She looked away from Elle’s questioning eyes.

“Was it a sister?” Even as she asked, the scenario spun in her mind. Her father, falling in love with her mother’s older sister. Then, the older sister passed away, and he married the younger, and both resolved to never tell the child. She shuddered at the thought. It seemed so awful.

“No. I didn’t have any siblings.”

Elle breathed a sigh of relief, which was quickly replaced by the return of her confusion. “But, it’s not grandma’s name. Or great grandma’s.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Then, who is Elle Mel Marta? Was I named after her?”

After a long silence, Lara wearily rubbed her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she sat down at the table. “No. You weren’t named after her. I chose your name.”

“Oh. But...” Elle’s voice trailed off as she realized she had no idea what to say.

Finally, her mom spoke. “He didn’t tell me much about it either, at least until we started talking about what to name you. I still don’t know much of the details.”

“Is... is it okay to tell me this? I mean, if Dad doesn’t want to…”

“He said it’d be okay to tell you when you’re old enough, if you asked.” Lara smiled softly. “Your father is not the type to keep secrets when you ask about them. Do you want to know?”

Elle swallowed the lump in her throat, and nodded.

“When we were choosing names, I wanted to name you Elle, because I liked the name best. When I told him, he was completely against it, but he wouldn’t say why. I pressed him and kept asking why, because I was afraid of what he was hiding from me. I pushed too hard.” Lara fell silent, a pained expression crossing her face.

“Did he… did he do something bad?” Elle whispered.

Lara’s eyes widened for a moment. “Oh, no! No, nothing like that. It’s just, he was so sad, and I was so selfish in wanting to know.” She closed her eyes briefly, then continued. “He didn’t want to name you Elle, because he once knew a little girl named Elle Mel Marta. She was like family to him, and he felt guilty that he couldn’t save her.”

“Is… is that why he always calls me Ellie?”

“I can’t say for sure, but I think so.”

Elle bit her lip. “But, then why didn’t you guys name me something else?”

“After he told me, I tried, though I couldn’t come up with anything. But then, abruptly, he said it was okay. That it was a special name for a special girl. By that time, it was too late to think of anything else, and he gave that name for the birth certificate. We didn’t really speak about it again for some time. It's not that he was keeping secrets. I just felt like it was something too painful to ask about.”

At that moment, the door swung open. “Hey, I’m back,” Ludger said. He tossed a bag of cat treats at Elle. “For Pollo. Just a few per day, though, or else he’ll start to look like his dad,” he chuckled.

“Oh, thanks!” she replied absently, her mind not quite able to move from the heady topic of the other Elle. She wanted to ask him about her.

“Is something wrong?” Ludger asked, noticing the somber mood of the room.

“Dad, uh...” Suddenly, Elle felt her chest tighten with apprehension. The words from the watch engraved themselves in her mind. _No Elle More Real_.

“Yes, Ellie?”

“Uh, I’m pretty hungry! Can we get started on dinner?”

Ludger and Lara exchanged glances like a conversation. The former smiled gently and nodded. “Sure. Let’s get started.”


End file.
